The invention relates to a method for controlling a safety-critical system, in particular of a motor vehicle, which includes a microcontroller. The microcontroller controls and/or regulates the operating sequences of the safety-critical system, and the microcontroller is composed of a microprocessor and at least one peripheral microprocessor device. In a method for controlling a safety-critical system in which disruption to the operational reliability is to be prevented by changes in the molecular movement of the carrier of the microprocessor, the chip temperature of a chip which is provided with the microprocessor and peripheral device together is measured during an operating sequence and/or program sequence and compared with a maximum permitted chip temperature of the microcontroller. The operating sequence and/or the program sequence is controlled as a function of the temperature comparison.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for controlling a safety-critical system in a motor vehicle which has a microcontroller, comprising: controlling and/or regulating the operating sequences of the safety-critical system in the motor vehicle, the microcontroller composed of a microprocessor and at least one peripheral microprocessor device; measuring a temperature of a chip which is provided with the microprocessor and the peripheral unit together during an operating sequence and/or program sequence of the microcontroller and compared with a maximum permitted chip temperature of the microcontroller; and controlling the operating sequence and/or program sequence as a function of the temperature comparison, wherein the operating sequence and/or program sequence of the microcontroller is interrupted when the maximum chip temperature is exceeded, and reprogramming of a flash memory which is arranged on the chip and forms a peripheral microprocessor device is monitored as a function of the chip temperature.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the measured chip temperature is supplied to an external evaluation device which carries out the temperature comparison and blocks the operating sequence and/or program sequence of the microcontroller by supplying an external signal.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the measured chip temperature on the chip itself is converted into a voltage change, the temperature comparison being carried out in the microcontroller itself.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the chip temperature of the microcontroller is set below the maximum chip temperature by regulating the operating sequences of the safety-critical system.
5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein when a permitted chip temperature is exceeded, the microcontroller, which is arranged in the direct vicinity of a device, which produces a power loss, actuates the device which produces the power loss, such that the power loss is reduced and the chip temperature is reduced.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
December 20, 2002
January 30, 2007
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